Any attempt by Georgian March to set up vigilante groups will be met with a ‘strict response’, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was quoted as saying by On.ge, a Tbilisi-based news portal.

“Protecting the law and prevention of crime in the country is the prerogative of the law enforcement agencies established by law, and according to the law. Only the authorities have the right to use legitimate force against the perpetrators,” a MIA spokeswoman said.

Georgian March, which is notorious for its rallies and aggressive protests against Muslim migrants and the LGBT community, has declared its plan to form vigilante-like groups to patrol the streets in Tbilisi looking for ‘suspicious foreigners’ and also a desire to establish a new political party.

TBILISI, DFWatch–A renowned Abkhaz musician who wrote the anthem of the breakaway republic was arrested Wednesday in Sokhumi and charged with sexual abuse of a minor.

The criminal prosecution against Valeri Chkadua, 70, was initiated after a complaint was filed by a teacher at one of the public schools in Sokhumi, the de facto authorities said. Details of the alleged crime have not been made public so far.

Valeri Chkadua composed the music for breakaway Abkhazia’s “national anthem” and also wrote the first Abkhaz ballet, Ritsa. Chkadua hails from Ochamchira district. He graduated from Tbilisi conservatory in 1977, then finished his postgraduate studies in 1980. After that he returned to Abkhazia, where he received the Dimitri Gulia State Award in 2008 for his contribution to the development of Abkhaz music.

]]>http://dfwatch.net/renowned-abkhazian-composer-charged-sexual-abuse-minor-49948/feed0Georgian far-right group plans to form new political partyhttp://dfwatch.net/georgian-far-right-group-plans-form-new-political-party-49936
http://dfwatch.net/georgian-far-right-group-plans-form-new-political-party-49936#respondThu, 15 Feb 2018 13:04:19 +0000http://dfwatch.net/?p=49936TBILISI, DFWatch–A far right group in Georgia that is forming vigilante groups to patrol Tbilisi’s streets looking for ‘suspicious foreigners’ is also planning to establish a new political party.

Leaders of Georgian March confirmed this to different media outlets. The group is notorious for its anti-migrant and homophobic rhetoric.

GM’s entry into politics became known on Monday when one of its most high profile members, Gia Korkotashvili, left the group and went public.

Korkotashvili said he didn’t plan to become involved in politics, but would keep friendly relations with other activists.

“Georgian March consists of honorable members of society. They are my friends. They decided to turn Georgian March into a political movement and to serve the national cause. I don’t want to enter politics,” said Korkotashvili, a professional singer and showman.

It was soon confirmed by Lado Sadgobelashvili, one of GM’s leaders.

“Elections are imminent and a part of Georgian Dream has decided to reshape it as a political popular movement,” Lado Sadgobelashvili said.

No other details on the GM plans in politics have been made public so far.

The purpose of street patrols was elaborated by one of the GM activists who stated that the ‘popular patrol’ will start patrolling Agmashenebeli Ave, Leselidze St, Freedom Square and other places where “foreign nationals spread drug addiction, prostitution, pedophilia and other crime”.

“The Popular Patrol will also monitor ‘night clubs’ where citizens of Georgia are poisoned [with drugs] and our future generation is being debased!” the statement reads. The patrols will be equipped with video cameras to record ‘the offense’ and then the the police will be called.

Ideologically Georgian March is similar to European far-right groups, and its policy includes radical anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric, protection of ‘family values’ and opposition to liberalization of drug policies.

An eyewitness caught this video of Saakashvili’s detention, according to an update on the ex-president’s Facebook page.

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s former president Mikheil Saakashvili has been deported from Ukraine. Saakashvili was detained in central Kyiv and deported to Poland by the border guard service.

A statement on the service’s website says supporters of Saakashvili tried to “obstruct law enforcement officials” and that the border guards “were forced to defend themselves and applied force support.”

Earlier Monday, the former deputy prosecutor general of Ukraine Davit Sakvarelidze and other friends of the former Georgian president and governor of Odessa confirmed that he had been arrested in the center of Kyiv by an unknown unit.

The detention was carried out inside the restaurant Sulguni, which serves Georgian dishes and is situated nearby the office of the Movement of New Forces, an opposition political party founded by Saakashvili a year ago.

His supporters wrote on his Facebook that he was seized by unknown men with masks and that the ‘kidnappeers’ left the scene in three Volkswagen minivans.

The supporters suspected that Ukrainian authorities would want to get rid of the former Odessa governor by deporting him to Poland.

TV channel 112 reported that the readmission was made possible by a special agreement between Ukraine’s migration service applied to Polish border guard.

The Georgian-born politician is stateless and entered Ukraine illegally, but the Polish border guard service has confirmed that Poland accepted him back in.

Should Saakashvili be deported to his home country Georgia, he will face imprisonment for three years after being convicted in absentia for abuse of power while he was president.

]]>http://dfwatch.net/ukraine-detains-saakashvili-deports-poland-49923/feed0CEO of Tbilisi clinic claims government of Azerbaijan intervened in his trialhttp://dfwatch.net/tbilisi-clinic-azerbaijan-intervened-trial-49913
http://dfwatch.net/tbilisi-clinic-azerbaijan-intervened-trial-49913#respondSat, 10 Feb 2018 12:48:19 +0000http://dfwatch.net/?p=49913TBILISI, DFWatch–The director of a Tbilisi hospital claims he was sentenced to prison on orders of the Azerbaijani government.

Ferman Ceyranli, the director of Lancet Clinic, was sentenced to six years in jail by Tbilisi city court on Friday.

The Prosecutor General’s Office decided to seek his imprisonment only after strong informal pressure from Azerbaijan, Ceyranli’s lawyers say. Azerbaijan is a close economic partner of Georgia and, as the Mukhtarli case suggests, enjoys formidable influence over officials in Tbilisi.

Cayranli was charged with fraud after two patients at his hospital died after failed liver transplants. He pleaded not guilty in court. His lawyers suggest he was imprisoned because Baku suspects he has financed the Azerbaijani opposition.

The lawyers present an article published in the Azerbaijani pro-government website Haqqin.az, which dubs Ceiranli (in the article referred to as Ceiranov) ‘the main face of the anti-Azerbaijani network in Georgia’.

Ceiranli relocated to Tbilisi from Baku in 2013, after having troubles with Azerbajan’s authorities. He is a Georgian national but ethnic Azerbajani.

Prosecutors assert that the patients died due to improper conduct by the hospital administration and charged Ceiranli as the person responsible for managing the clinic. They accuse the clinic of not informing the patients about the risks associated with liver transplants and that the surgeries were not carried out in accordance with the necessary procedures.

TBILISI, DFWatch–A woman who served in a banned paramilitary force in the 1990s and her son was shot in Tbilisi Wednesday morning.

Dodo Gugeshashvili (59), a former high-ranking member of the Mkhedrioni paramilitary group, sustained a wound to her chest and was hospitalized.

Her son, 32 year old Nodar Gusgeshashvili, was also shot in the attack and died on the spot.

The shooting occurred at Gugeshashvili’s flat in Dighomi, an uptown neighborhood in the west of Tbilisi.

No other details are available so far.

(1tv.ge.)

Mkhedrioni, which literally means “cavalry” in English, was a paramilitary force established in late 1980s by former thief-in-law, Jaba Ioseliani. At its peak in 1992-93 the unit consisted of 7,000 fighters and associate members. It played a key role in ousting President Zviad Gamsakhurdia in 1992 and the subsequent civil war where it was notorious for war crimes and mass looting.

Mkhedrioni fought both in the war in Abkhazia and the war in South Ossetia. Apart from fighting, it was also notorious for being involved in mafia-style business in Tbilisi and other parts of Georgia, as well as political assassinations.

]]>http://dfwatch.net/mkhedrioni-paramilitary-shot-tbilisi-49897/feed0Rare Georgian language memorial discovered in Abkhaziahttp://dfwatch.net/rare-georgian-memorial-discovered-abkhazia-49881
http://dfwatch.net/rare-georgian-memorial-discovered-abkhazia-49881#respondFri, 02 Feb 2018 17:56:35 +0000http://dfwatch.net/?p=49881TBILISI, DFWatch–A World War II memorial in Abkhazia has been found to bear an inscription in the Georgian language; a rarity after a recent wave of cultural cleansing.

DFWatch’s reporter unexpectedly stumbled upon the memorial stone in Merkheuli, a village in the south of Abkhazia. It is dedicated to Lavrentiy Beria, the head the of Soviet secret police NKVD.

It’s an astonishing discovery, because Georgian language memorials are so rare in today’s Abkhazia. The breakaway authorities vigorously erased all Georgian language traces after the 2008 war and almost every inscription in public spaces has been destroyed.

The inscription, in both Abkhazian and Georgian language, reads: “The heroes who glorified your homeland, your the name is immortality.”

The memorial is located in the yard of the Armenian school in Merkheuli, Beria’s birthplace, which lies 22 kilometers east of Sokhumi and along the road connecting Sokhumi with Kodori Gorge, dubbed “the Abkhazian Military Road”.

Lavrentiy Beria (1899-1953) was chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus (NKVD) prior to and during World War II, and one of the foremost perpetrators of the Great Purge in Georgia.

According to the 2011 census conducted by the Sokhumi regime, the Merkheuli population was 839, 76.3% of ethnic Armenians, 9,4% Georgians, 8,6% Abkhaz and 4,4% Russians. By 1926, the population exceeded 3,800, nearly half of which was Georgians. Before the 1992-93 Abkhazian War, the population was about 4,000.

The 1989 census didn’t offer data about the ethnic composition of the village, but the majority of the population was Georgian. The vast majority of them fled the village in September 1993, after the fall of Sokhumi.

]]>http://dfwatch.net/rare-georgian-memorial-discovered-abkhazia-49881/feed0Selective abortions still rife in Georgia’s ethnic Azerbaijani communityhttp://dfwatch.net/selective-abortions-still-rife-georgias-ethnic-azerbaijani-community-49870
http://dfwatch.net/selective-abortions-still-rife-georgias-ethnic-azerbaijani-community-49870#respondThu, 01 Feb 2018 22:51:58 +0000http://dfwatch.net/?p=49870People still actively request to determine the gender of the future child in advance during first trimester of the pregnancy in the municipalities inhabited by ethnic Azerbaijani people. 31-years-old Sakina Alieva from Marneuli has 5-years-old boy. Before having the boy she got two abortions because she was expecting girls. Sakina said she decided to artificially stop pregnancy under pressure of her husband:

“When I learned I was pregnant, I was very happy. The husband warned unless we had first child a boy, he would divorce me. When we learned that it was a girl, he demanded me to do abortion. I refused and he really took me to my father’s family and left me there. The parents told me they would not take care of me and my future child if I divorce my husband. I was compelled to get abortion.”

Mother of three, 35-years-old Sevda Mamedova, lives in Tbilisi. She said she got three abortions to have a boy after two daughters. “It was very important for my husband to have a son. In the third pregnancy, when we were told during the ultrasound examination that it was a girl, the doctor said the embryo was already big and abortion could create problems for me. Despite that, under pressure by my husband, his parents and relatives I got abortion. The relatives, particularly the women, used to call me “childless” that was psychological oppression on me.”

The Georgian legislation does not prohibit the abortion. In accordance to the Law of Georgia about Healthcare, in case of desire, a pregnant woman has right to know the gender of the future child and get surgical abortion until the term of pregnancy exceeds 12 weeks (after 12 weeks the abortion shall be allowed only according to medical conditions). Many women artificially stop pregnancy because of the embryo’s gender.

According to the UNFPA and World Bank survey “Gender-Biased Sex Selection in Georgia: Context, Evidence and Implications,” from 1990s to 2010, 25 000 girls “disappeared” in Georgia as a result of selective abortion.

The research states that Georgian National Assembly of Reproductive Health had confirmed the data about relevance between different-gender births and noted that neither medical society nor general population perceive the sex-selective abortions as significant problem.

The research confirmed that in 2008-2012, the sex ratio at birth was about 100 females per 112 males, while natural sex ratio is 100 females per 105 males.

Doctor at Marneuli Hospital, gynecologist Paata Kholuashvili said recently the number of selective abortions has reduced. “We usually explain to the women that selective abortion is inadmissible.”

Chairperson of the Georgian Azerbaijani Women Association, Gultakin Hajieva said it is still in high demand to determine the future child’s gender in-advance and many women get sex-selection abortion.

“We still live in the patriarchal society. Many people still believe that the son is the most important heir of the family as he shall take care of old parents. The daughter will get married and part with her parents. Now girls get high education too, work and assist parents. It is not justified to get selection abortion. If the state creates conditions for the girls to get good education, many parents will realize that the daughter is as valuable child as their son and the situation will improve.”

According to the data of the National Statistic Agency, 56,569 children were born in Georgia in 2016; among them 28,887 boys and 27,682 girls.

Nurana Mammad

The article was prepared in the frame of the project implemented by Human Rights House Tbilisi with financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Georgia and National Endowment for Democracy (NED). HRHT bears sole responsibility for the content of the article. The article does not necessarily reflect the views of the donors.

]]>http://dfwatch.net/selective-abortions-still-rife-georgias-ethnic-azerbaijani-community-49870/feed0How cousin marriages affect Georgia’s ethnic Azerbaijani populationhttp://dfwatch.net/cousin-marriages-affect-georgias-ethnic-azerbaijani-population-49851
http://dfwatch.net/cousin-marriages-affect-georgias-ethnic-azerbaijani-population-49851#respondTue, 30 Jan 2018 17:06:21 +0000http://dfwatch.net/?p=49851“My elder daughter has thalassemia. When doctors diagnosed her, we learned that it is a genetic disease and mostly it happens with children when they are born as a result of cousin-marriages. I’m married with my cousin. If I were aware of the risk, I would not have married him; and would have saved my daughter from this illness,” Saadat Gasanova from Kizilajlo village, Marneuli municipality said.

56-years-old Sanubar Mamadova also married her relative in Kizilajlo. One of her daughters married her cousin as well. “Neither my children nor my grandchildren have health problems. Two grandchildren have anemia but many children have also this problem. Marriages between close relatives was common in our community and nobody protested it. Nobody had health problems for the marriage and it may not cause problems now either. Any couple, who are not relatives, may also have a child with health problems,” Sanubar said.

3, 5% of the Georgian population is carry thalassemia gene. Doctors say the disease is inherited and is mostly common among ethnic Azerbaijani population. The reason is so-called ‘cousin marriages’.

During the so-called ‘cousin-marriage’ there is huge risk that both parents are carriers of thalassemia recessive gene and their child will have genetic disease.

The cousin-marriage is rife among Muslim population in the countries of Near East and Northern Africa: Koran does not prohibit cousin marriages. For example, 40% of Egyptian population is married with their cousins. There is no similar statistic in Georgia and nobody knows how many cousin-marriages are registered in Georgia.

Leyla Mamedova, chairwoman at the Union of Georgian Azerbaijani Youth, said one of the main reasons of cousin-marriages is that they know and trust each other; they do not want to “bring” strangers to their families. There is another reason: many families do not want to leave their property to the people outside the relatives’ circle.

“When close relatives get married, they are not aware that their children might get sick with genetic disease. The informed person, who cares about the future and children’s health, will not make such decision,” Leyla Mamedova said.

Paata Kholuashvili, medical doctor at the Marneuli hospital, said it is very important that the couple took medical tests before marriage. “Children born from cousin-marriages may have the diseases like thalassemia, microcephaly… In the epoch of internet people must have more information about the possible follow-up risks of cousin marriages and now their number has decreased. Often we inform future couples that marriages between blood relatives are not advised. It would be good if the couple takes medical tests before marriage.”

Unlike him, Leyla Mamadova thinks the low awareness of the Azerbaijani population is the reason of the risks originated from the cousin-marriages and the state needs to take steps in this direction.

Nurana Mammad

The article was prepared in the frame of the project implemented by Human Rights House Tbilisi with financial support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands in Georgia and National Endowment for Democracy (NED). HRHT bears sole responsibility for the content of the article. The article does not necessarily reflect the views of the donors.